Cinema of the WorldA comprehensive library of Arthouse..Cult,Classic,Experimental and rare movies from all over the world.

Patricia Mazuy – Travolta et moi AKA Travolta and me (1993)

ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS IN THEIR TIME is a series of filmscommissioned by the French-German TV station Arte. Ten directors wereasked to participate by making a movie about their teenage years. Eachfilm had to include at least one party scene which highlighted the musicof the time. TRAVOLTA AND ME, Patricia Mazuy’s entry, transpires in1978 and (not surprisingly, given the title) takes its inspiration fromU.S. disco and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER.

For those of my generation, TRAVOLTA AND ME holds a strongnostalgic component. Beyond that, this is a nice period piece that haslimited success muddling its way through the teenage angst engendered bya first love. The main character, Christine, is wildly infatuated withAmerican actor John Travolta until she meets real life heartthrobNicolas. While the boy sees Christine as just another potentialconquest (and an opportunity to win a bet with his friends), she fallshead-over-heels for him. What follows starts out as a pleasantexamination of coping with youthful passion and the pressure to havesex, but ends in a wildly over-the-top look at what many teenagers wishthey could do.

In its restrained moments, TRAVOLTA AND ME is an effective, often-moving look at one girl’s struggles with the conflicting desires createdby the approach of adulthood. When the story is focused, it works.However, things become unbalanced near the end as Mazuy permits allsorts of strange and unbelievable events to take place. These lend anunreal aura to the final twenty minutes that distances us fromcharacters we’re still getting to know, dulling the impact of theconcluding sequence and dampening an otherwise fine character study.